Tea room brings Victorian trappings to Milford

Rebecca Coreless, a home care nurse from Shohola, Pa., likes to go to tea rooms with friends to "catch up," she says. "No one talks to anyone anymore, with their cellphones and email."

Jessica Cohen

Rebecca Coreless, a home care nurse from Shohola, Pa., likes to go to tea rooms with friends to "catch up," she says. "No one talks to anyone anymore, with their cellphones and email."

For years she envisioned starting her own tea room, and in October she did it, urged on by Pam Lutfy, one of her tea room companions, who rented her space at a modest rate.

The Flying Pig, appropriately set back out of the bustle on Broad Street, puts to use all the pots, teacups, hats, Victorian tea room trappings, and recipes people have been contributing to the vision.

"It's a place to sit and relax and catch up," said Coreless. "Turnover is nice, but I'm not pushing people out the door."

This Saturday, the Tara Minstrels, an Irish folk music group, will perform.

"If a kid brings a pinwhistle, they'll show them how to use it," said Coreless of the band's amiably interactive style. She has also had poetry readings, private parties, meetings, and bridal showers.

Along with tea sandwiches, such as cucumber, tuna and egg, that come on the popular tea sampler tower, Coreless experiments with different kinds of scones, apple crumb and pineapple. And she says Guinness stew made with beer is popular with Irish music.

Favorite teas are hot vanilla coconut and iced watermelon mint.

Because of her nursing obligations, the Flying Pig is open only Friday, Saturday and Sunday, she said.

On a recent Friday afternoon, a wedding celebration was afoot amid the front yard's summery foliage, brightened by flowers on the table and flowers worn by the bride, Nancy Eller Wineberg. After 10 years of marriage, she and David Wineberg, of Milford, Pa., had re-affirmed their vows, taking no chances, since they found their original wedding in France might not be recognized in the U.S.

David called the tea room "a best-kept secret, comfortable and unknown."

Inside, tables were mostly full, including one table of five women, who gather at tea rooms across the region and beyond four times a year, once each season.

"We started doing it because we didn't see each other enough," said Joan Glunk of Freehold, N.J. They also bring friends along, sometimes swelling their group to as many as 22 people.

Glunk and Helen Konieczny, also at the table, have known each other 40 years, and taken vacations together for 30, visiting tea rooms wherever they go around the world, 160 total.

"We try not to compare them. Each stands on their own," Glunk said. "This is our first animal name tea room."

"When we started going to tea rooms, we hardly saw any men," said Lynn Sweeney, of Red Bank, N.J., though now men appear more regularly.

Glunk recalled a sign by a men's room in a Seattle tea room: "We know you were dragged here kicking and screaming, but enjoy the experience while you're here."